Tag: testing

I have admired the way soaps made with Cambrian blue clay look for some time. Once when placing an order with one of my vendors, I decided on a whim to purchase some Australian washed blue clay, thinking it was the same thing as Cambrian blue.

As it turns out, it’s not. After doing some research, I discovered that Australian washed blue clay is actually a kind of bentonite clay. I have used bentonite clay before in shaving soaps because it adds slip, but I hadn’t tried it in a regular soap before. I know that it’s considered to be good for acne, but I decided it was probably fine since I have used a bentonite-clay based shaving soap on my legs and suffered no dryness as a result.

I’m not sure if everyone sells Cambrian blue clay wet, but Bramble Berry does. Obviously, my Australian washed blue clay is dry. I thought it looked sort of green, but it’s hard to tell with clay until you get it wet, and even then, it doesn’t always look the same as it will in soap.

I decided I would experiment with it anyway because even if it turned out green, that would work just fine with my planned batch. I had decided to use the Lavender & Cedar fragrance oil that Bramble Berry sent me as a thank you for participating in the S.O.A.P. Panel last year. I haven’t seen too many people talking about this fragrance in soaping circles (or perhaps I’m not looking in the right places, which is entirely probable). Bramble Berry does warn that the fragrance loses some of its camphor notes in cold process, which suits me fine. I also thought that it would work well with either a green or a blue soap, so it would be perfect for my experiment with Australian washed blue clay.

I use kaolin clay in most of my soaps because it adds silkiness and creaminess and also helps anchor fragrances so they stick better. French green clay is a staple of my Provence soap. I have used pink rose clay (a form of kaolin) to color some soaps as well, and I have used rhassoul clay in my Guinness Beer soaps. I almost always just add my clay directly to my oils and stick blend before adding my lye. I have had the fewest number of problems with mixing when I have followed this method for using clay.

Another method includes adding clay to the lye water (which you would also only do if you were coloring the soap with the clay only). I have never tried adding it to my lye water.

A third method involves making a slurry with clay and water or clay and oils. I have sometimes had clumps in my clay when I have used this last method, especially if I make a slurry and then add it to a bit of the soap, and then add the colored soap to the rest of the batch and blended as David Fisher describes here. I have had the best luck with this method if I just treat the clay like any other colorant and add the oil or water and clay slurry directly to the soap and blend. If you are doing a swirl or using other colors, it’s the method to try.

Since my Lavender & Cedar soap was going to be one color, I decided to add the clay to the oils and blend. It definitely looked green, but the final test would be adding the lye water and blending. Sometimes the color of the soap lightens once the lye is blended well with the oils.In the early blending stages, it looked a lot like French green clay to me. Once I was done blending, sure enough, it was still green.

It’s pretty, but it’s sure not blue. I poured the soap into the mold.

I decided to sculpt the tops a bit and add some pretty safflower petals.

Here is a close-up:

In the close-up, you can see the soap has tiny flecks in it. Neither bentonite or French green clay does that (at least in my experience), and I really like the look of it. It’s not quite the same shade as French green clay, but it’s not far off. The safflower petals set it off nicely, but they would also have looked nice with a blue soap.

I would just have to wait for the unmolding and cutting to see what the soap would ultimately look like. So what happened in the end?

A lovely shade of green. Definitely nothing remotely close to a blue. For the record, I gelled these soaps, too, so if it were likely to morph or change color at all, it would have done so.

The real shame here is that you can’t smell them, looking at them on your computer screen. Oh my, do they smell good. A nice scent of cedar underlaid with the floral lavender and some other more complex woodsy notes I can’t quite pick out. Ultimately, I think the color is perfect for the fragrance.

It doesn’t quite look like French green clay, either. The flecks in the soap are quite pretty, and the color does look nice with the safflower petals. The soaps have a nice, silky feel.

Even though the results of my experiment were not what I had anticipated (a blue soap along the shades of a Cambrian blue clay), I’m still quite happy with them. I love the fragrance, and really hope my customers enjoy the soaps.

Participating in the S.O.A.P. Panel was a lot of fun for me. It was interesting also to have a glimpse at some fragrances Bramble Berry is considering for their product line. The opportunity to have some influence over those decisions or at least report my experiences with the fragrances was also powerful, and I took it very seriously. I tested using a recipe that I didn’t expect would accelerate trace on its own. I used no colors so I could judge each fragrance’s effect on the soap’s color. I soaped at temperatures close to 100 degrees. I didn’t discount water. I gelled each soap so that I could see whether the fragrance would come through saponification, even if exposed to the higher temperatures of gelling. In short, I tried, as much as possible, to use testing conditions that would ensure the soaps I made were all the same, with the exception of the fragrance.

In the table below, I have listed the fragrances by number and linked them to their individual test blog posts. Then, I have ranked them from 1-8 in order of my own preferences (1 was my favorite, 8 was my least favorite). Finally, I have some thoughts and some recommendations for Bramble Berry, as well as any other soapers who might one day use the fragrances, should Bramble Berry sell them.

I didn’t care for this one out of the bottle as much as I liked it after soaping with it. It is nice and strong after a cure, too. I really like its fresh scent. I can’t figure out what the scent is, but it smells great, and I would totally buy this one. It smells green or blue to me, and I think it would be nice with a green, blue, and white swirl of some kind. I really hope BB decides to carry this one.

The only reason this fragrance ranks so low is that it completely disappeared in my CP soap. It might be great in other products, such as candles or lotion. I sort of hope that some of the other testers decided to use it in one of those types of products to see how it performs. It smelled great and behaved well, too. It’s just gone. Notice it’s not ranked #8 though! Even with no scent left!

This was my favorite mainly because I identified it as honeysuckle, which is one of my all-time favorite scents. I love the way honeysuckle smells in bloom, and I have used many honeysuckle fragrances in the past. This fragrance smells true and is strong, even after a cure. It would be beautiful with a white, cream, and yellow swirl to mimic the honeysuckle blooms. For a floral, it behaves well, too. I would most definitely buy this one, and I hope BB decides to carry it.

This one smells really good, and I would buy it. It is strong after a cure. I think it would go well with greens, yellows, and whites, as I think I detect a tart pear fragrance. It smells really good on its own, and I think it might blend well with other fragrances, too. I hope BB also carries this one. It was close between this one and the ones I ranked #2 and 3. I did like all of them.

This one smells like dirt or grass. It might be fun for a novelty soap for golfers or gardeners, but otherwise, I wouldn’t want to use it. Of course, I have never romanticized the smell of fresh cut grass the way some other folks do, so that is something to bear in mind. It would be great with a green colorant (I’m thinking a swirl of mostly chromium green oxide with a little bit of brown oxide and titanium dioxide woven through). It might be fun for some people, but I wouldn’t buy it unless a customer especially requested a grass fragrance.

I liked this one the least. It misbehaved a bit in soaping, and it doesn’t smell good to me, even after mellowing a bit in a cure. I can’t identify the scent, and I have no real recommendations for colorants to use as a result. I would recommend that BB not sell this one. I don’t think it would be terribly successful.

This one didn’t stand out in any strong way to me. It didn’t smell bad, but it didn’t wow me either. It’s a sort of fruity floral. My husband thinks he smells rose, but it smells more like carnation to me. I am not sure if I would buy it or not. I think it would go well with pinks, creams, or whites. I am on the fence about my recommendation. I hope to peek in and see what the other panelists think of this one. It smells pretty, but I liked many of the other fragrances better. However, I should note I am a sort of “fruity” fragrance person. My husband likes florals (for women) much better, and is more disposed to those scents. I think if you like florals, you’d probably like this one, and BB may find there is a good market for it.

This one smells great. I would totally recommend that BB carry it. I would definitely buy it. It does discolor, but not badly. I would recommend trying colors like blue, white, and a light brown together to create a sort of manly looking soap, as this fragrance smells masculine to me. I really liked this one almost as much as #1 and 2. It was a close contest.

I hope this helps Bramble Berry and the soaping community. Please look for an update in a couple of weeks on how these soaps perform after a good cure (the last two were made too recently for me to tell). I will also include photos of each so you can see whether the soap has discolored or ashed. I did forget to spray #5 with alcohol, so it may have a disadvantage there.

Initially, I thought this fragrance smelled like a “sexy man,” and for once, I didn’t change my mind. It still smelled like a sexy man out of the bottle and in the soap. I liked this one. As you can see, it’s a little yellow out of the bottle.

As I did with the other seven fragrances, I used a recipe of 45% olive oil, 25% coconut oil, 25% sustainable palm oil, and 5% castor oil in this recipe. I soaped with full water (38%) and a 6% lye discount. The oils and lye water were 95 degrees when I combined them. I blended to a light trace. This picture is a little dark.

After I added the fragrance, I stirred a bit with the spatula, but I saw no signs of ricing. I stick blended a bit. No acceleration or immediate discoloration, as you can see in this picture I took after the fragrance was blended.

I actually blended it a bit past light trace—maybe to a medium trace. Then I poured it into the mold and drew curly designs on the top.

I unmolded and cut the soap the next day. As you may be able to see from the photo, this fragrance does discolor slightly. There is a faint brownish frame around the edges of the soap. I expect the rest of the soap to turn the same shade. It is not the deep brown you get from fragrances with a lot of vanillin, but I am wondering if this fragrance has a little bit of vanillin in it, which might explain both the discoloration and the pattern of discoloration—in my experience, fragrances with vanillin take some time to completely change the color of the soap, and what you often have is this “frame.”

This one smells great. After saponification, the fragrance is still strong, and I’m detecting a fruity note (maybe apple). I would totally buy this one. Two thumbs up!

In an upcoming post, I will recap my reviews, ranking the fragrance in order of my own preference along with any recommendations I can think of. In a few weeks’ time, I will update everyone on how these soaps performed after a good cure.

Thanks again to Bramble Berry for the opportunity to be on the S.O.A.P. Panel. It was a lot of fun!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to test the S.O.A.P. Panel fragrances. Work has kept me busy. Now that I’m on spring break, I can make a bunch of soap!

Fragrance #7 has a floral note. My husband Steve remarked that it smelled a bit like rose. It might also be carnation. There is another note I can’t identify, and there is a vaguely fruity note as well.

As you can see, it is fairly clear out of the bottle. I used 24 grams in my recipe, which was the entire contents of the bottle. My recipe, as before, was 45% olive oil, 25% coconut oil, 25% sustainable palm oil, and 5% castor oil. I used full water (38%) and a lye discount of 6%. The oils were about 105 degrees and the lye mixture was about 95 degrees when I combined the two. I blended to a very light trace before adding the fragrance.

Right after I added the fragrance, it riced a little bit and separated. I would not have been able to incorporate it without blending, as just stirring with the spatula wasn’t working. This separation could be a problem with some recipes or complicated swirls, especially if you don’t want to stick blend after adding the fragrance. I stick blended a little bit more, but there was no acceleration, so I went ahead and gave it a good blend. After that, the fragrance incorporated well and caused no more problems. It didn’t discolor the soap batter at all, though initially I thought it might turn the batter yellowish, as right after I poured it, the fragrance looked yellow in the soap.

I poured the soap at a light-medium trace and drew a bit of a feathery design on the top, as the soap had definitely started to thicken by the time all of it was in the mold. I put the soap away to gel over night.

I cut the soap the next day. It does appear to have very slight yellowish discoloration, but certainly nothing bad and nothing that would cause problems with any colors you might want to use. I think reds, pinks, whites, and greens might go nicely with this scent. After this soap saponified, I could smell mainly the floral scent, but I really can’t decide if it’s more of a rose or a carnation. I don’t smell any fruity notes anymore, but there is something else there besides the floral that I can’t identify. It doesn’t smell like typical rose, if so. I find rose scents are sometimes cloying, but this smells nice. It doesn’t knock my socks off, but it’s nice. I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to buy it, but I don’t dislike it, either.

My nose was so wrong on this one. Initially, I said this was citrusy with a floral note and smelled summery. Yeesh. I am detecting a vague fruity smell, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. Behind that is a sort of masculine, woodsy scent. It smells like it might be a dupe of some cologne, but I can’t be sure which one, since I am terrible about keeping up with that sort of thing. If you’d have asked me in the 1980’s, I would have known, but I had a cologne-obsessed boyfriend at the time, so I didn’t have to work at it. My husband says it smells like a melon soaked in industrial cleaning fluid. After he made that comment, I sniffed again, and I can smell some sort of melon in there. I initially thought I liked this one, but the more I smelled it, the less I liked it, and by the time I was done soaping with it, I really disliked it.

As before, I used a recipe with full water, 45% olive oil, 25% coconut oil, 25% sustainable palm oil, and 5% castor oil. I soaped with oils that were about 93 degrees and a lye solution that was about 96 degrees. I used the full bottle of fragrance, which was 25 grams.

I stick blended to a light trace, and then I added the fragrance.

The fragrance acted kind of funky in the soap. At first, it seemed to reverse trace, and it didn’t seem to want to incorporate well. Then, the soap didn’t rice exactly, but the consistency was strange. I stick blended it thoroughly, but it never seemed to get thicker than a thin trace.

So, I decided it pour it into the mold and put it away.

It looked fine. I sprayed it with alcohol about 30 minutes later, and it felt really hot and kind of squishy, but gelling a soap can sometimes resolve problems, so I left it alone for another 30 minutes. When I checked it again to spray it with alcohol one last time, it was in full gel, and the fragrance was weeping a bit from the sides of the mold.

It also has a little bit of cracking on the top, but I think that was more from me squeezing the mold a bit when I handled it. Still, that is really fast for a full gel to be going on, and I didn’t like the look of that weeping fragrance oil.

That was nothing. I tested it, and it was pretty much ready to unmold only hours later. This fragrance must have some crazy catalytic ingredients! It gave the surface of the soap a sort of “brainy” appearance that I’ve seen before when soap overheats in the mold. Remember my process was the same for making this soap as it was all the others. When I did shimmy it out of the mold, this is what I found.

The fragrance was weeping all around the parts of the soap that the mold touched. I wiped it off and let the soap dry a bit. Weeping fragrances are not necessarily terrible, and even essential oils will do it; however, it’s worth noting that I didn’t have this problem with fragrances #1-5.

Anyway, I cut it after a little while. It boggles my mind that the soap completely gelled and was ready cut in the spaces of less than 6 hours or so. Usually I have to wait at least 12 hours to cut.

As you can see, the soap is discolored yellow. I will monitor it to see if it continues to discolor. For the sake of comparison, here is a photo of this soap next to one made with fragrance #5, which did not discolor.

I can imagine that if this fragrance was used with a faster tracing recipe (butters, less olive, more palm), it might cause some real problems. The fragrance mellowed a bit after saponification, but I still cannot say I like the scent. It reminds me of something, but I can’t think of what. It isn’t pleasant, however, and I wouldn’t want to use it. Sorry, Bramble Berry, this one gets two big thumbs down—doesn’t smell good and is difficult to work with. I wouldn’t recommend it for your product line.

Scent #5 was my least favorite of the S.O.A.P. Panel fragrances out of the bottle. My initial impression was that it smelled a bit like neem oil. Later, I thought I detected some grass notes and a sort of earthiness. After I poured the fragrance out and let it “breathe” for a few minutes, the strongest note I could detect was a grass note, followed by a sort of earthy dirt scent.

As I did with fragrances 1-4, I used a recipe of 45% olive, 25% coconut, 25% palm, and 5% castor oils. The oils were about 90 degrees and the lye mixture was about 100 degrees when I combined them. I used full water in the lye mixture. I used the full bottle of fragrance, which was 26 grams.

I blended to a very light trace.

Then I added the fragrance oil. There were no issues with acceleration, discoloration, or ricing. Indeed, I can’t tell the difference between the soap before and after the fragrance and had to double-check the time on the picture to be sure.

I expected this fragrance to misbehave, but it soaped beautifully. I poured it into the mold and put it away to gel. It actually took quite a long time to gel, so this fragrance should give anyone time to play.

I unmolded it the next day (a little hastily, hence some bent corners that needed a quick bit of reshaping). As you can see, still no discoloration.

There is a little bit of soda ash on the top, as I neglected to spray the tops with alcohol. The scent is still quite strong, but the earthy dirt notes have retreated a bit. It really smells exactly like grass after saponification, and it’s scent remains very true—no morphing at all. It would go well with a nice grass green color. It might be fun as a novelty soap, perhaps for a golfer, but I am just not loving it. I’m giving it a thumbs up for its behavior in the soap, but a big thumbs down on the scent. I think, however, that some folks who really love the scent of fresh cut grass would enjoy it.

My initial impression of fragrance #4 was that it smelled sort of masculine. My nose must have been off! It smells fruity and a bit floral to me now. I am detecting an apple note to it. It’s a bit sour, but it smells really good.

The fragrance is slightly yellow right out of the bottle. I used the entire contents, which was 25 g, in my one-pound recipe. As I did with the previous test fragrances, I used a recipe of 45% olive oil, 25% coconut oil, 25% sustainable palm oil, and 5% castor oil. I also used full water. As before, I soaped at about 100 degrees.

I let this soap trace a little further before I added the fragrance, mainly because I was trying to take pictures and not having an easy time of it, for some reason. Here is the soap before the fragrance was added.

I stirred and then stick blended the fragrance in. It did not appear to accelerate because of the fragrance. I think I may have blended a bit much. Keep in mind that I also have a recipe high in olive. It’s possible butters combined with this fragrance might cause acceleration. No issues with ricing or discoloration, either, though the batter did initially turn a little bit yellow.

However, by the time I poured it into the mold, it was a creamier color again.

I did a little swirl on the top since it was at a thick enough trace, but it isn’t terribly noticeable.

It came out of my mold easily the next day, and it does not appear to have any discoloration.

It’s quite pretty! It smells delicious. I think saponification actually brought out some of the fragrance’s floral notes. I like this fragrance. So far, it appears to be strong in the soap. I will keep an eye on how well the fragrance sticks after a cure, as I plan to do with all the fragrances. Two thumbs up on this one, though!

Woo! The snow dance worked. Despite a really cold and somewhat snowy winter, we haven’t managed to have snow days. It keeps snowing on the weekend around here! Anyway, we have one today, so I indulged in a little soap experimentation last night. I tried out the third S.O.A.P. Panel fragrance.

You might recall that fragrance #3 is a bit floral. In the bottle, it smells like jasmine or honeysuckle to me. It’s quite strong, but I like the scent quite a lot. It’s a very pretty, feminine floral, and it is perfect for spring.

As I did with fragrances #1 and #2, I used a recipe of 45% olive oil, 25% coconut oil, 25% sustainable palm oil, and 5% castor oil. I used the full amount of fragrance I had—24 grams. My recipe calls for a 6% fragrance usage rate, which would be 25-26 grams, so I used just the tiniest bit less than my recipe calls for. I also used full water.

As before, I mixed my lye and oils at about 100 degrees to a light trace. Then I added the fragrance. The soap immediately turned a yellowish shade.

As is typical with florals, this fragrance accelerated a bit. It was completely workable, even with some additional stick blending. However, by the time I poured it into the mold, it was thick enough to swirl the tops.

This batch is considerably thicker with about the same amount of “fussing” as the other two, so yes, this fragrance accelerates a bit. Provided a soapmaker soaps cool and stirs, rather than stick blends, it should still allow for swirls and other designs. Some recipes with butters contribute to a thicker trace as well, so it might be a good idea to use more soft oils with this fragrance.

I noticed when I checked on it after 30 minutes to spray some isopropyl alcohol on it that it was already set up firmly. In fact, when I accidentally tugged the side of the mold, it came away from the soap easily. Usually, after only 30 minutes, the soap is not quite that hard. I went to sleep and didn’t check on it after about an hour, but it appears to have gelled just fine, and it doesn’t appear to have become too hot (no glycerine rivers).

I unmolded and cut it the next day (maybe about 14 hours after I made it). The soap is discolored a bit—sort of a yellowish shade. It’s completely workable, however, and I think it would do well with colorants. After saponification, the honeysuckle note comes through quite strongly, so my best guess is that this is a honeysuckle fragrance. Honeysuckle is my favorite smell in the world, so I would know it anywhere. It’s quite strong. It came through gelling quite well. I will check on it over the course of its cure to see how it holds up. Depending on how it performs over time, it might even be possible to use less of the fragrance with good results. Florals tend to give me a bit of a headache if they’re too strong, and right after cutting this one, I felt a bit of a headache wave, but it will most likely mellow a bit as it cures. Strong fragrances can sometimes be overwhelming when the soap is first cut, but as the water evaporates, they mellow out nicely.

Fragrance #3 would work well with white, butter yellow, and gold (if you’re looking to match the honeysuckle colors), but even colors like pastel shades of pink, blue, purple, and green would go well with the scent.

I really like this one. For a floral, it is well-behaved. It doesn’t discolor very much. It’s nice and strong and holds up well in cold process. Two thumbs up, Bramble Berry! I loved this one.

I absolutely love this fragrance. It smells really juicy. It could be apple, but it smells more like pear to me, though there is a refreshing bite to it as well. It could be a Granny Smith Apple scent. It smells awesome! I am a big fan of fruity scents in general, and this particular scent might be my favorite of the eight.

Out of the bottle, it’s a clear, light color. Though this bottle had 29 grams, and my recipe calls for 25-26 grams of fragrance, I went ahead and used it all rather than leave three grams, mainly because I’m not sure what to do with just three grams of fragrance.

As I did with the first fragrance, I used a recipe with 45% olive oil, 25% coconut oil, 25% sustainable palm oil, and 5% castor oil. I used full water (38%) and a lye discount of 6%. I combined the lye mixture and oils at approximately 100 degrees. I blended the oils and lye to a very light trace. I used no additives or colorants.

Then I added the fragrance. I forgot to take a picture of the soap batter in the bowl after I combined the fragrance, but there was absolutely no change in color. The fragrance did not accelerate. If anything, it seemed to reverse trace a little bit. I wound up blending the soap a little bit more to thicken it before pouring it in the mold, and the fragrance didn’t misbehave at all. It was very easy to work with.

I poured the soap into the mold. As you can see, the soap batter is the same natural shade it would have been without any fragrance.

I gelled the soap and unmolded it. As you can see, there is absolutely no discoloration.

In fact, I realized that it discolored even less than scent #1. I didn’t think #1 discolored, but after seeing it next to #2, you can tell it does discolor the tiniest bit.

Fragrance #1 is on the right, and #2 is on the left. Fragrance #2 remains a beautiful creamy beige—very nearly white.

After gelling the soap, I noticed that the fragrance is not quite as strong as I’d like, and I will be interested to see how it does after a cure. I think one way to get around the problem of a light scent is not to gel the soap and to use more fragrance. However, for the purposes of testing, I think it’s important to see how the fragrance holds up to gelling. I do wish the scent were stronger after gelling it, but it is by no means completely dissipated.

Two thumbs way up! I love, love, love this scent. I want to find out what it is and buy it immediately. If you like fruity, juicy type scents, you will want to add this to your spring and summer line for sure. It’s an excellent summery scent, and I can see it working well with shades of green, white, yellow. My mouth is honestly watering just sniffing it. Bramble Berry, you MUST sell this one!

UPDATE: Several hours after I posted this review of the fragrance, I am struggling to detect any scent in the bars at all. I think perhaps this fragrance, while it smells wonderful, just doesn’t hold up well in cold process. It might be wonderful for hot process or lotions. It makes me sad because I absolutely loved it.

Initially, I thought I detected fruit in this fragrance, and then I smelled a sort of piney, fir-type scent with hints of floral. I wonder if this is a juniper berry scent. I tried smelling some gin to see if I detected juniper in the fragrance, but I’m just not sure. I have smelled a juniper scent used in a well-known bath and body store, and I thought it stank horribly, but this is very pleasant. So, I’m just not sure what it is.

As you can see, it is a dark yellow out of the bottle. I had planned to use the fragrance at 6%, which would have been 25-26 grams in my recipe, but there was only 22 grams in the bottle, so the usage rate is slightly less than I planned, but not by a lot. It is still probably on the stronger end of the typical usage rate.

The recipe I used is 45% olive oil, 25% coconut oil, 25% sustainable palm oil, and 5% castor oil. I used full water (38%) and a lye discount of 6%. I combined the lye mixture and oils at approximately 100 degrees. I blended the oils and lye to a light trace. I used no additives or colorants.

When I added the fragrance oil, it turned a buttery yellow, but initial discoloration was quite minimal, despite the dark orange tone of the fragrance. Here is a picture of the soap with the fragrance blended in.

There was no acceleration or ricing at all. The fragrance behaved very well, even with additional mixing with the stick blender.

I poured the soap at a light trace. I let it set up overnight, and then I unmolded it. I have never used this mold before, so one lesson I learned is that it’s not quite ready to unmold the next day! The corners of my soap were a little torn. I don’t think the fragrance had anything to do with it. I think it’s the nature of the mold not to allow much air in, so the soap was still somewhat soft, even after gelling.

I cut the soap. As you can see, there is absolutely no discoloration. The soap is the same neutral color as when I don’t use a fragrance at all. I was sure, when I saw how dark the fragrance oil was, that it would discolor yellow. I will monitor how it changes over the course of the next week, but at least initially, this fragrance oil performs beautifully. It is very easy to work with and soaps well.

After saponification, the piney scent has retreated a little, and the fruity floral has come to the fore a bit more. There is a definite woody scent to it—almost a sort of fir needle scent. I have to admit I didn’t think I liked those kinds of scents, but I really like this scent. I think the fruity floral blends well, and it doesn’t wind up smelling like a Christmas tree. That said, I think it might make a nice holiday scent for soapers to add to their line. I envision that it would go well with a blue and green palette of colors, too. I don’t see it as a unisex scent. The floral makes it a feminine scent that women who typically like more unisex or masculine scents would probably like.

Two thumbs way up! This fragrance is great. I would definitely buy it.